


Evitative Chapter 21.5

by dmhello



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blaise is tired of the pining, Dark Magic, Draco and Hermione bond over cocoa, Draco is trying, Empath Draco Malfoy, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Light Angst, M/M, Slytherin Harry Potter, Wizard Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21550405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dmhello/pseuds/dmhello
Summary: A continuation of Vichan`s amazing story Evitative because I have an active imagination and no self-control. Happens right after Harry`s second rite in chapter 21.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter
Comments: 24
Kudos: 105





	Evitative Chapter 21.5

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vichan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vichan/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Evitative](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20049589) by [Vichan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vichan/pseuds/Vichan). 



Blaise was laying on Draco’s bed, legs lazily kicking as they read. They both were waiting for Harry to finish his rite, who had left half an hour ago. Both had no idea how long it would take. Harry’s last one took an hour and a half, and another hour for Draco to patch Harry’s cuts up while chewing him out for using his palms.

“Honestly Harry, do you know how many nerve endings are in your palm alone?!” Draco has squawked, all while carefully disinfecting and wrapping his hands up.  
Blaise smiled a bit at the memory. Draco tried to hide it as much as possible, but he really was a mother hen when it came to the Slytherins. He was pulled from his thoughts when Draco broke out in a grin and started giggling.

“Dray?” Blaise asked tentatively. The blond was rarely known to break into giggles over a book.  
“It’s not mine,” He said, covering his mouth for the noise. The curtains were spelled to be soundproof, but the sound was still odd. A good odd, since Blaise hadn’t heard it since Draco had been little.  
“Not yours?”  
“No, I think this is Harry,” Draco said trying to get his laughter under control, but still grinning like mad. “I guess he finished.”  
Blaise gave him a breath of a smile before handing Draco a bookmark.  
“Better go get him, before Peeves thinks he has a brother.”  
“Just me?”  
“You’re the prefect.”  
“You just don’t want to get up!”  
“Also true.”

===

“Harry?” Draco hissed as he rounded the corner. Harry was half-covered in his invisibility cloak, head popping out, which negated the point of the cloak entirely. He and the cloak were a pile on the floor with Granger sitting in front of him, looking like they ran right into each other.

“Draco?” Harry pipped up. He had told both Draco and Blaise to get him if he passed midnight, but it was barely 10. “How’d you know I’d be out here?”  
“Had a feeling,” Draco said, smiling as he pulled Harry up to his feet. “You really ought to be more careful. Invisible doesn’t mean you don’t look where you’re going.”  
“I know, I know!” Harry said, shaking his head as he put the cloak back on. “I’ll go straight to our room, promise.”

Draco smiled genuinely again, which was an odd sight to see for Hermione. She was so used to him smirking or sneering. They watched Harry disappear as he rounded the corner toward the dungeons.  
“You want to make rounds on the basement floor? I’m rather hungry.” Draco said, pulling Hermione up to her feet too, which was more surprising than the smile.

===

Hermione blew on her cocoa. Draco brought some scones he had stashed away over to the counter, along with his own drink.  
“So I have a sneaking suspicion you didn’t invite me here for the cocoa.”  
“Smart as ever Granger,” Draco said moving a stool next to her and sliding in with his snacks. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while now, actually.”  
“On what?”  
“Holidays” he stated. Hermione sipped at her drink, a finger tapping on the ceramic handle of her mug. “Those cyclical days, I know he didn’t show it too much, but they are starting to mean a lot to him. Holidays, in general, I think mean a lot to him. You having an interest in them, it made him really happy Granger.”  
“Really?” Hermione piped up, beaming a little more. A happy Harry was seldom seen this past year, and god forbid he be anything but stressed or angry since Christmas.  
“Yes, really. He’s been so excited to learn all of this, experience it all. You even hinting at joining in with something that’s been making him so happy? I never saw him be more hopeful or excited.” Draco was stretching Harry’s reaction a bit, but the feelings were still there even if Harry didn’t show it. “Just-I want you to keep an open mind, Granger. This means a lot to him, and you wanting to be there means a lot to him, to us.”

Draco didn’t like the fact that ‘us’ slipped so easily off his tongue, but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. His growing want for Harry is not why he was sitting here with Granger.

“I’ll try.” Hermione said sighing “I’ll try to keep an opened mind. It’s just-it’s a dark subject is all.”  
“They’re just different holidays Granger, it’s not dark, and besides, even if they were dark why would that be a problem?”  
Hermione tutted, taking another sip of her cocoa.  
“Granger, dark doesn’t mean evil or bad, you know that right? Please tell me you know that?” Draco said, using his most in-class, as-a-matter-of-fact, how-do-you-not-know-this voice he could. If he passed this as general wizarding world knowledge this could go much smoother.

“What?”  
“Yeah, light and dark doesn’t mean good and bad. It’s magic, there’s no morality assigned to it, it’s just magic. It’s how you use it, making it a dichotomy when it’s-“  
“More complicated than that?” She interjected, leaning forward with interest.  
“No, it’s just not that at all. It’s like saying day is good and night is bad. That’s crazy and completely unfair. It’s more like a yin and yang concept. They are different from each other, it’s a different magic, but that’s it. It’s just different, and that’s not bad. They need each other, too much of both and magic starts to get unbalanced and hurt, like day and night. Sure, night is scary and everything would wither if that was all there was, but people forget that if it was nothing but day it would do damage too.”  
“Everything would be a desert.”  
“Yes, yes exactly!” Draco said, purple-grey eyes sparkling with glee now. She was getting it!  
“So...why are all the famous dark wizards so horrible? Like Voldemort or Grindelwald?”

Draco almost deflated. It was a valid question, one he asked himself a few times over this whole life crisis. He had to do this carefully.

“Well, I don’t have all the answers for this. History isn’t my best subject, though it’s hard to be good at it with how Binns runs the class. But I have a guess...”

Hermione grabbed a scone, nodding along. Draco Malfoy admitting he wasn’t the best at something? She figured it must mean he was serious about the topic if he dared to be down here with these mere mortals.

“One problem is that the famous ones announce it to the world, and it’s not seen as something you do. It’s on par with announcing you have blonde hair. It’s just a part of you. No one can help what affinities they have. It’s just something you’re born with. It’s just a fact about the wixen, that’s it. So normal everyday people just go about their day, doing their work and life or whatever. You don’t know who has what affinity. Not even their job could be an indicator because there could be light and dark wizards who do everything. So everyone probably knows someone with a dark affinity without even knowing it, because it’s not relevant to everyday life. You know? So yeah, people like the Dark-“ Draco grimaced ever so slightly, taking a breath. That name wasn’t going to help this conversation “-like Voldemort announce it and use dark magic for...horrible purposes, but the people using it for good or neutral things are just living their daily lives. You don’t see it plastered all over the papers or history books, but they always have and will be there.”

Hermione’s eyebrows shot up with the name and kept poking at her hairline the whole conversation. She had never heard any of the Slytherins say Voldemort’s name, least of all Death Eater’s kids like Malfoy. She had seen the subtle change in them all as they spent more time with Harry, but nothing like this dramatic of a language change.

“Like that one older Weasley, I’m sure he has at least a small dark affinity to be so good at handling dark creatures.” Draco started, trying to remember his name.  
“Which one?”  
“Uh, works with dragons, short, tattoos on his arms, long princess hair with the braids?”  
“Charlie?!”  
“Yeah sure, that one. Dragons are dark creatures, to work with them so well in such as short time you would have to be well, dark. Sure a light wizard could be that good with time, but he’s a prodigy from what I heard. I’m sure if anyone’s not evil it’s the Weasley’s.”  
Draco couldn’t mention he knew how to describe Charlie so well because he saw him at Yule. How Sirius and Harry failed to notice the redhead was still a mystery to him.

“And another thing, if muggleborn like you have a dark affinity no one tells them about it, or even how to check for affinities. There could be hundreds right now, but you don’t know! That’s crazy for me, because finding out the parts of your core, while it isn’t necessary to find out what magic you do best and what feels right, it makes it worlds easier. Stopping a whole portion of people from finding out what magic will make them feel more at home and themselves just because society fobbed off an entire branch of magic out of fear? That’s not fair! It’s just one branch mind you. Dark and Light is a sliver of what affinities a Muggleborn may have. That’s not fair to anyone, that’s not fair to Magic! Because yeah day is nice, but night has its beauty too” Draco swallowed, his speech coming to an end “and I have to pretend to not see any of it.”

Hermione’s face was now stern, frowning into her drink before slamming her mug down.  
“Well boo hoo for you Malfoy!” She snarled, making Draco jump in his stool. “You have to pretend not to see beauty because of some madmen put a bad name to dark magic! You think that’s unfair? I have to worry about whether those madmen are going to kill me! So pardon me if I don’t listen to your unfair tale of woe because I’m trying not to be bullied or harassed or killed by pureblood supremacy assholes who hate me like you!”

“I don’t...” Draco’s eyes darted around “I don’t hate you.”  
“Well, you’ve certainly been acting like it since day one, so sorry if I don’t believe you!”

Hermione had tears in her eyes now and started to storm off. The bushy-haired witch was opening the kitchen door, the creaking of the old hinges the only sound in the pregnantly silent room. Draco gripped the counter, throat thick with emotion.

“I’m sorry!”

Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, wondering if she had heard Malfoy right. He had shouted it, almost deafeningly so, but there was no way he had said those words. No way he actually felt remorse.  
She turned on her heels, her kinks of hair wiping around her head as she stared at the blonde.

“Wha-“

“I know those words don’t-can’t-make up for what I’ve done. If I tried to apologize to everyone I hurt I’d never be done, but you I’ve hurt more than probably anyone. So you seem like a good place to start.” Draco swallowed as Hermoine closed the door, taking a few cautious steps back toward the counter.

“I’m not going to sit here and try to explain or give some long drawn out story on my shit lonely childhood, because none of it makes it any better, and I want to be better okay?”

“You want to be better for you? Or because you think Harry wants you to?” Hermione asked carefully. Draco looked down, his feet suddenly increasingly more interesting than Hermione’s eye contact.

“I don’t know” Draco let out a shaky breath, feeling like his mask might break any second. “All I know is that when I do things for me, it usually doesn’t end well for anyone else. So maybe if I do this for Harry it’ll turn out better?”

There was that pregnant silence again. The small pitter-patter sounds above them and castle white noise getting louder and more stifling.

“I want to be better, because Harry, you, even the Weasley twins, you’re all so...good.” Draco let his purple-grey eyes drift up to Hermione again. “You guys, you make being good and not hurting people so easy-looking, so natural. It’s natural to you all, and I don’t even know what that looked like until I got to know Harry. He told me about Creevey and beat himself up about it all week, and I didn’t even blink at it! He was surrounded by so much good, and now he’s stuck with,” he motioned down to himself “this!”  
Draco`s eyes were feeling wet now, his mask falling off crack by crack, and for once he was letting it.  
“Harry deserves to be surrounded by better.” Draco sniffed, not sure if he was talking about just his attitude anymore. “Harry deserves better than me.”

Hermione stepped closer to Draco, leaning on the counter.  
“You’re right, those words don’t make up for what you’ve done. It doesn’t change anything.” She reached up, wiping a tear from Draco’s cheek that managed to escape his walls. “But this does, and if you keep doing this? You’ll be well on your way.”  
She put a hand on his forearm, rubbing her thumb back and forth on the fabric of his sleeve. “You decide to be better, you’re on your way just fine Malfoy.”

Draco let out another shaky breath and wiped his eyes, smiling again.  
“You need a walk to the dungeons? I know you Slytherins don’t walk alone.”  
“You remembered?”  
“Kind of hard to forget when you hear the reason why. Everyone’s still shocked about what Applebee did, and him being expelled for attacking Harry.”  
“Oh that wasn’t just because of Harry,” Draco said packing up his scones. “If anything he was just the catalyst.”

Hermione cocked her head, taking a scone for herself after she put their mugs back.  
“I figured if he was bold enough to attack Harry, there had to be more people right? So I looked into it, asked around. Turns out he’d been harassing quite a lot of the younger years, especially the girls. He should have been out of this school a long time ago. I can’t believe I didn’t notice!”  
“Hey, you are the one person that looked into it. You noticed so he couldn’t continue to do it. That’s not something to discount.”  
“Yeah okay, point.”  
“Oh, I’m sorry what was that?” Hermione asked. Her eyes gleamed too similar to the twins for Draco’s liking. She cupped a hand around her ear. “Oh, I was right about something? Do tell me more!”

Draco laughed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head as they walked down the corridor.  
“Maybe those jokes Tracy always makes about us being siblings in another life have some merit to them after all.”  
“If so, I was definitely older than you.”  
“And I without a doubt murdered you for the inheritance.”  
“Oh yeah, no question.”

Their conversations as Hermoine walked Draco to the dungeons were much lighter than their kitchen conversations. Mostly complaints on History of Magic and Runes. A few of the other prefects passed them, staring as they did like they walked into a parallel universe. Because certainly, that would be the only explanation to Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger getting along.

===

“Hey, Granger?”  
“Yeah, Malfoy?”  
“Despite everything, this whole cocoa meet up wasn’t half bad.”  
“Yeah, and the scones were good.”  
“Thanks.”  
“You made those?”  
“Yeah, otherwise I have to share. I give them to the younger snakes if they need a pick me up, same with the popsicles in the freezer. It’s hard to be crying when you’re eating.”  
“Huh,” Hermione said as she took her final bite “I might just steal that.”  
“Don’t you dare!” He jokingly hissed, shoving her playfully.  
“Speaking of food, I’ve been thinking-“  
“Dangerous”  
“Shush damn it, I’m trying to be nice!” Draco sighed “I’ve been wondering if next October, maybe before the feast, you and Harry could take us trick-or-treating? Samhain doesn’t start until the evening so you show us our holiday, we show you ours?”  
Hermione smiled, beaming from inside out. “I’d like that, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like dress up and chocolate.”  
“I’m more of a sour candy person myself.”  
“Not surprised, considering you’d marry a green apple if you could.”  
“I’m leaving. I’m leaving now Granger. I’m done talking. Goodnight!”  
“Is this what it’s like to have an annoying sibling?”  
“Hell if I know!”

===

Draco still had a bit of a skip in his step as the walked into the common room, but it would be his luck that Marcus Flint would be the one to greet the blonde as he walked in.  
“So you’re buddies with Granger now, are we Malfoy?” He hissed, the quidditch captain towering over Draco as the blonde was petite even for his age.  
All Draco did was slip on his mask of indifference, cocking a sharp eyebrow in Flint’s direction.

“She’s important to Harry, and Harry is important to me. So I’m tolerating her.” He put as much emphasis on the word ‘tolerating’ as he could. The last thing he needed was the other Slytherins knowing he was getting along with Granger, as much as it shocked him.

Flint just grunted, moving back to one of the couches as Draco walked briskly to the fifth year dorms. He scurried around in the dark. The fish from their lake view windows made all sorts of patterns over the room. His ballet training kicked in as he walked quietly on his toes from one shadow to the next. Draco slipped past his curtains and nearly yelped when Blaise and Harry cast lumos.

“You two are still here?!”  
“We were waiting for you. What took you so long?” Blaise hissed, face full of annoyance until he saw his friend’s stash. “Oh your scones, never mind.”  
Draco rolled his eyes, digging out two of his baked goods. “I thought the rite might have drained you, so I got you some food.”  
“Thanks,” Harry said, sitting cross-legged as he munched “it really didn’t though. In fact, I’ve never felt this giddy and energized.”  
“We noticed that part” Blaise said, both his voice and face tired and dead-panned.

Harry shoved at Blaise playfully before turning to Draco.  
“How’d you know where I was? You never do rounds on that floor, and you said you would wait here until 12?”  
“As I said, I had a feeling” Draco said.  
“Oh, come on,” Harry said rolling his eyes.  
“No really Harry. When Draco says he has a feeling, he means it.”  
“B!” Draco hissed. His entire body went rigid.  
“Dray come on what’s he going to do? Tell your father?”

Draco let out a few noises before sighing, glancing at a very confused Harry and a still dead-panned Blaise.  
“Harry, you have to understand, I’ve never told anyone this besides Blaise and Pansy, okay? Never ever, not even my parents.”  
Harry just scooted closer, leaning toward Draco and ready.

The blonde looked at him, shoulders tensed up and hands gripping his sleeves.  
“I’m an empath,” he said softly, glancing around the bed like he was checking if anyone else heard. “I can feel what other people around me are feeling, if I let them in. It’s why I asked Severus to teach me occlumency before I got to Hogwarts. That way I can shield myself from feeling other people’s feelings and only let in a select few.  
“And I’m one of them?” Harry asked surprised “that’s how you knew I was done with the rite? You felt how happy I was?”  
“Yes.”  
“All the way from the other side of the castle?”  
“Yes, for some reason I can’t help it with you lately. Even when my shields are up, your feelings just seem to jump right over.”  
“And you can tell it’s someone else’s and not your own?”

“Oh yeah, I can tell easily.” Draco nodded, relaxing now against his pillow. “I know when I’m feeling something and when someone else is. It’s the same rudimentary emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, all that, but it also comes with that person’s distinct feeling too. So I know it’s you who’s happy and not me.”  
“One time when we were five the three of us were playing hide and seek in his mother’s garden. Draco was all smiles and then suddenly big tears just came down his face, no warning. He didn’t even notice until I said something. Turns out Pansy had tried hiding up a tree and fell. Broke her arm pretty bad.”  
“Woah, so you start acting like the person? Crying when they’re hurt and sad?”  
“In extreme cases” Draco nodded. “I have outward signs of my link, like crying or giggling. I’ve learned to control it where I just feel that someone is feeling something and that’s it, but if the emotions are sudden and strong enough it just starts to hit me in waves.”  
“He started giggling in the middle of reading Harry. You should have seen it. Like actual child-like giggling.”  
“I’d like to see that” Harry chuckled.  
“Not a chance” Draco sneered.  
“Oh come now Dray, I thought it was cute. Eyes all purple and smiling.”  
“Purple?”  
“My iris’ get a purple tint when I connect with someone’s emotions. That’s another marker that I’m feeling my link with someone and not my own emotions. Though I didn’t know it until Pansy pointed it out. I can’t exactly see my own eyes.”

“Wow” Harry breathed, taking it all in. “That’s incredible! Wait, is this why you always seem to pop up when anything goes wrong? You can feel it?”  
“Yeah, it’s been a lifesaver since I became a prefect.”  
“And no one else knows, your parents really don’t know?”  
“They don’t know much about Draco, honestly” Blaise said with a half a scoff and half a snort.

Draco glared at Blaise but tried to ignore the comment. “I think my mother had her suspicions. She was always telling me to control my emotions. She kept saying it was because emotions had no use in favor of rational. Just something to plague judgment and let your enemies get the jump on you. I think in her way she was just trying to keep me from losing control. Having no control of my ability and being stuck in a gala crowd would have been a nightmare. Plus an empath can be dangerous after all. It’s why I don’t tell people.”  
“Dangerous?” Harry asked, his curious green turned to concern.  
“In some circles. It doesn’t happen often, on record anyways, but some empaths can be used to not just feel other’s feeling but manipulate them as well. You want a whole army to be too angry to fight with strategy, or too scared to fight altogether? Get an empath. I’ve never been able to do it, and a manipulator type empath is even rarer than empaths themselves, but I’m betting that won’t stop a some certain group we know from trying.”  
“Oh” Harry nodded grimly “so, should you be talking to me right now? What if Voldemort finds out through me? I-“  
“Harry, you said it yourself it only happens when your scar is hurting. Is your scar hurting?”  
“No.”  
“Then we’re okay.” Draco put a hand on Harry’s “besides if there’s anyone who can protect my secret it’s you. I trust you, Harry. That’s why I let you in.”  
“Thanks,” Harry said, circling his thumb around the back of Draco’s hand. “I trust you too, and I’ll protect you. I’m glad you told me, and I’ll try to let you in too. Not in the same way-I’m not an empath but-you know what I mean.” Harry stuttered out. A blush creeping onto his dark-skinned cheeks.

‘Don’t’ Draco thought as he stared at their lazily joined hands. ‘Don’t give me hope. I’m not someone you deserve yet. You don’t deserve to be stuck with this me.’

“I should get to sleep. Unless there’s something you want to chew me out on this time?”  
“I don’t know, is there something I should be chewing you out on?”  
“Don’t think so. Maybe that I left the candle wax on?”  
“Harry, Merlin, go wash it off already! It’s been sitting on your hands for a half an hour!” Draco said, pushing Harry off of his bed toward the bathroom.  
“Okay, alright, no need to get all mum snake on me,” Harry whispered, getting his pajamas and heading for the bathroom.

===

“Oh yes, I’m sure you have absolutely no clue whatsoever why you link with him so easily. Honestly no guesses here, no sir.” Blaise said once he heard the faucet turn on.  
“Shut up B,” Draco said, hitting Blaise with a pillow.  
“Ah, Dray come on it’s obvious. You fancy him, and it looks like he fancy’s you too.”

Draco felt his face get more flushed by the word. He normally liked that he didn’t blush, but more his whole face and sometimes chest would change from his pale white to a rose gold. This flushing made his embarrassed more hide-able. Unless you were Blaise or Pansy and you knew what the difference looked like. Then it was no help at all.

“He has enough going on, I don’t need to throw an emotional bone into the mess.”  
“Draco is that really how Harry feels? Because you’re the one who can check.”  
“I’m not using my link just to snoop around and see if he’ll date me, Blaise! That’s not what this is for.”  
“Then go and check like the rest of us and talk to him. He might really need your bone for all you know.”  
“Please just drop it B,” Draco said, grabbing his pajamas and slipping them on quickly. “It’s been a long day.”

Blaise sat in silence as Draco put his pillow back, snuggling up to his half of the covers and curling up, facing away from his friend.

“Okay, I’ll drop it for now, but something is holding you back Dray. I can tell. I don’t know if it’s your history with him, or your family, or what, but it’s something you’re not telling me.”  
Draco sucked in a breath, hunching more into the covers.  
Blaise just sighed “all I’m saying is you two deserve to be happy, and you deserve it despite whatever else might be going on around you two, okay?” He quietly places a kiss on the top of Draco’s head, running his fingers through his white-blonde hair “goodnight.”

Draco felt the magic around him as the curtains closed behind Blaise, silencing and locking charms shimmering to life.

And he cried

Draco didn’t stop the tears as they flowed down onto his pillow. He sobbed into the nighttime darkness. The emotions from the whole evening-his own and what he had felt through his ability-spilling over. How had Blaise managed to say exactly what he didn’t want to hear?

He didn’t stop crying until sleep pulled him under.


End file.
